Publisher's Synopsis
The ten-times world darts champion, the king of the oche, and a legend in the game. Largely responsible for taking darts into the 21st century, eschewing drink and advocating fitness to improve performance, Taylor covers around 500,000 miles a year competing across Britain, and in countries as far apart as the USA and China.
Brought up in the back streets of the Potteries, where his Dad tried to turn him into a boxer, Taylor's first job saw him earning £75 a week in a factory making ceramic toilet handles - and by the age of 25 he had hardly thrown a dart in anger.
Then he attended an Eric Bristow darts exhibition, and the 'Crafty Cockney' became his mentor and friend and loaned him £10,000 to play the pro circuit. Within two years Taylor had won the first of his ten world titles.
In his book, Taylor describes how Bristow coaxed, bullied, humiliated and often literally punched him into making it as a pro. He is candid about the booze culture of the game, while revisiting the memorable matches and recalling vivid stories featuring the likes of Bristow, Cliff Lazarenko (who once had 20 cans of lager before a match), John Lowe and the legendary Jocky Wilson.
A dispute between the professional players and the British Darts Organisation in 1992 almost led to a dispirited Taylor giving up the game for good. And he goes into detail about the worst six months of his life, when he was accused and convicted of sexually assaulting two female fans.
The pain for his family was hard to bear. Taylor's own career faltered as he sought to rid the demons from his mind. This is a human story of a man having to come to terms with unparalleled success in his professional career and determined to win his eleventh world title in 2003, yet taunted by shame and tragedy in his private life.
